On 14/10/2021 14:19, dvint dvint@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Yes instead of xslt I meant xsl-fo. I'm going to be using DITA XML and
> need to produce a pdf. 

The elephant in the room is of course LaTeX, which can easily handle the
formatting you describe. Outputting LaTeX source from XSLT is
straightforward if you have a well-defined architecture as you seem to have.

On 13/10/2021 08:55, dvint dvint@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
[...]
> If feasible, can I make sure the page breaks are the same in the
> instructor and student versions? They want to make sure they can
> reference page 32 and make sure everyone is looking at the same page.

Provided both versions occupy the same space. If one version creates
marginal notes longer than the paragraph[s] adjacent to which they fall,
you would need a macro in the LaTeX document class to ensure that the
same amount of space was left blank in the other version. This problem
has long been solved for facing-page translations, where matching
paragraphs must be kept aligned across the central gutter, so the code
should be reusable.

> I suggested outputting to indesign, but they don't want to add more
> software  so this would be a straight to pdf transformation.

If the addition of no-cost software is precluded then I think XSL-FO is
your only viable route.

Peter